Not upheld: financial abuse, safeguarding, and APP scam reimbursement complaint against Monzo Bank Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr G complained to Monzo Bank Limited after making several payments to Ms T, a woman he knew, who had requested financial assistance. Mr G claimed he was a victim of financial abuse and coercion, citing his autism and inability to refuse her requests, and alleged Ms T's reasons for needing money were fabricated. Monzo initially dismissed the complaint as a private dispute but later acknowledged it involved a safeguarding issue and offered £25 compensation. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that while the circumstances were potentially exploitative, they did not constitute an APP scam under the Faster Payments Scheme reimbursement rules, as there was insufficient evidence of dishonest intent by Ms T on the balance of probabilities.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Faster Payments Scheme reimbursement rules definition of an APP scam, which requires fraudulent or dishonest conduct to manipulate, deceive or persuade a consumer into transferring funds. The key issue was whether Ms T's intentions were dishonest from the outset. While it was possible she acted dishonestly, the evidence was not strong enough to show this was more likely than not on the balance of probabilities. The messages showed repeated requests with stated reasons, but these could have been genuine or Ms T could have simply failed to repay for other reasons. The ombudsman found the threshold for fraud had not been met and that the circumstances more properly represented a private civil dispute rather than an APP scam.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website